2024-05-11 03:01:00
The iron claw 7 points
The Iron ClawUnited States, 2023
Direction and script: Sean Durkin
Duration: 133 minutes
Interpreters: Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson, Maura Tierney, Holt McCallany, Lilly James, Michael Harney.
Premiere: Available in rooms.
It is often stated, abusing the commonplace, that reality is stranger than fiction. The formula is used to magnify true stories that, because they are so implausible, seem to be the fruit of a lush imagination. The tendency to apply it even to childish and even stupid situations has been detracting from its value, until it has become almost unusable. Going beyond what has been said, The iron clawnew film from the Canadian Sean Durkin, once again honors the phrase by making the decision to tell a diminished and shortened version of the real story from which it is inspired. The reasons for this are quite understandable and cinematically logical.
The movie tells the life of the Von Erich clan, a family of fighters famous in the world of wrestling between the ’70s and ’80s. These scripted fighting shows in the style of the remembered Titans in the Ring, but with a greater load of violence, they are a very profitable business in the United States. It is enough to mention that many of its stars have jumped into movies, generally successfully, from Hulk Hogan to John Cena, including Dwayne Johnson and Dave Bautista. The Von Erichs They had their own troupe in the state of Texas, managed by Fritz, father of four boys. to whom he bequeathed, and in some cases imposed, the profession of fighter.
The iron claw begins as a version of the American dream in which Fritz, who as a wrestler failed to reach the top, tries to fulfill his unfinished wish through his children. A burden that the four young people seem to enjoy between the gym, alcohol, summer and rock and roll. The soundtrack plays with that idea, cleverly playing “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper”, a famous song by Blue Öyster Cult, a hymn to the youthful unconsciousness of feeling that even death can be defeated. The song accompanies a montage sequence in which the eldest of the Von Erichs, Kevin, enters the arena to give an account of the pop effervescence that bubbles around him and his brothers.
But the song also functions as a black cat crossing the screen. A disastrous oracle that contradicts the peaceful family happiness shown in the first part of The iron claw. A glass façade that will soon break, to discover the dark abyss that lies beneath. If the film begins as a kind of candid juvenileia, in which the brothers Kevin, Dave, Kerry and Michael seem to enjoy running after an almost childish illusion, it will soon become clear that it is actually a dream that does not belong to them.
In some way, the structure of The iron claw responds to the laws of the coming of age, initiation films that narrate the ritual of passage from childhood to adolescence of their protagonists. Although neither of the Von Erich brothers is a child, his attitude towards a domineering father has much of that uncritical fascination that is only possible in childhood. Soon, everyone will begin to walk the path of disappointmentgiving rise to a tragic chain narrated from the point of view of Kevin, played with an open heart by Zac Efron.
The dramatic vuometer of the story moves its needle from a beginning of artificial luminosity, towards an open and dark drama. To such an extent that if it were not a true story, one would even say that the screenwriter dedicated himself to exaggerating just to make the Von Erichs’ story more tragically cinematic. However, it is the other way around: the script avoids accounting for some misfortunes, because if it were to stage them, no one would believe that all of this really happened to a single family. In the case of the Von Erichs, reality indeed surpasses fiction.